title: Tropical forests and global change: filling knowledge gaps.
abstract: Tropical forests will experience major changes in environmental conditions this century. Understanding their responses to such changes is crucial to predicting global carbon cycling. Important knowledge gaps exist: the causes of recent changes in tropical forest dynamics remain unclear and the responses of entire tropical trees to environmental changes are poorly understood. In this Opinion article, we argue that filling these knowledge gaps requires a new research strategy, one that focuses on trees instead of leaves or communities, on long-term instead of short-term changes, and on understanding mechanisms instead of documenting changes. We propose the use of tree-ring analyses, stable-isotope analyses, manipulative field experiments, and well-validated simulation models to improve predictions of forest responses to global change.
authors.affiliation: Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. Pieter.Zuidema@wur.nl
authors.forename: Pieter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Zuidema
authors.forename: Patrick J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Groenendijk
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schippers
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van der Sleen
authors.forename: Mart
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vlam
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sterck
mesh_terms: D057486:Carbon Cycle; D004777:Environment; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D057232:Global Warming; D007554:Isotopes / Q000032:analysis; D019359:Knowledge; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000502:physiology; D018547:Plant Stems / Q000502:physiology; D014197:Trees / Q000502:physiology*; D014329:Tropical Climate
chemical_list: D007554:Isotopes
keywords: climate change; manipulative field experiments; stable isotopes; tree-growth models; tree-ring analysis; tropical forests